Join us for the Cities Across the Globe Symposium, April 29-30

UIC’s Great Cities Institute’s presents its 2nd Annual Cities Across the Globe: People and Places Across Borders symposium on April 29th and 30th to address key questions around economic vitality, poverty, space and place, urban development and international trade, transnational migration and settlement, borders, and an array of issues related to the contemporary urbanization dynamics.

Keynoting this year’s symposium opening day, on April 29, at 9:30 a.m., is Diego Aulestia, Minister of International Trade of the Republic of Ecuador. The Minister, whose talk is entitled, Global Exchange: Building Local Economies Through World Trade, will present innovative alternative economic development growth strategies that have been instrumental to the country’s recovery and job creation models and that may be applicable to other nations and local economies. Recognized as a rising international thought leader, Minister Aulestia is a trained economist and recently served as the Ecuadorian Minister of Urban Development and Housing. A panel discussion will follow his remarks.

As part of its mission, the Great Cities Institute will explore the questions of how trade impacts a city’s neighborhoods. Following the Minister’s presentation, a panel, moderated by GCI Director, Teresa Córdova, will consider how nations – and communities – can establish an economic agenda that produces commodities for exportation while bringing capital back into neighborhoods to provide local economic activity. The panelists are:

Laura Ortega-Lamela is executive director of the International Business Council of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and a partner with Delaney Law, specializing in the intersection of law, business, and politics. As a European Union of Counsel, she is licensed to practice in Europe and has developed in-depth expertise in multiple jurisdictions. Through her experience in international business and consular affairs, Ortega-Lamela has built an extensive network of officials that enables her to serve global businesses both in the United States and abroad. Drawing on her knowledge of common law and civil code legal systems, Ms. Ortega-Lamela has helped a wide range of clients address issues in multicultural, multijurisdictional environments.

As director of international business development, Thomas Bartkoski is responsible for attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI), general business development, and international marketing. He assists foreign-based firms location evaluation and site selection, and works closely with the foreign-based business community in Chicago and the local Consular and foreign economic development communities. Bartkoski introduces the area economy and business environment to foreign business and public-private delegations. He has two decades of private, public and not-for-profit sector experience in the economic development field.

Raul Raymundo grew up in Pilsen and has long understood the challenges and strengths of working-class and immigrant families. In 1990, with the help of six Catholic parishes, he co-founded what is now known as The Resurrection Project (TRP) to ensure that Pilsen built on its assets to address its many challenges. Under his leadership as executive director for more than 20 years, TRP has seamlessly blended community development, community organizing, human service delivery, and advocacy to build vibrant, healthier and involved communities.

At the Hull House, On Thursday, April 30, beginning at 8:30 a.m., Great Cities Institute will continue the Cities across the Globe event with an all day symposium, highlighting scholars from Africa, The Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe, along with UIC scholars. Among those participating in the symposium includes:

Joseph Bangura, West Africa
“The Evolution of Irrigation Urban Landscapes of the American Southwest” Moises Gonzalez, New Mexico
“Welfare Asssemblage: Politics, Methodology, Analytics” Ian McGimpsey, University of Birmingham
“Red Earth Realities and Blue Sky Thinking: Frontiers of Mining, Governance and Community in Western Australia” Clare Mouat, Australia
“Responsible City: Corporate Social Responsibility and Cities in Turkey, Europe, Middle East and West Asia” Ali Ercan Özgür, Istanbul, Turkey
“The Concept of Commons in the Rio Grande Watershed” José Rivera, New Mexico
“Disassembledge in Russia: How Buryats Reconstruct Through Time and Space” Elizabeth Sweet, Temple University
“Cities of Outraged: A Proposal to Analyze the Metropolises in the Early Twenty-First Century” Claudia Villegas, Mexico City
Francisco Uviña, New Mexico
“Welfare Asssemblage: Politics, Methodology, Analytics” Deborah Youdell, Birmingham, UK

UIC Scholars:
“Contemporary Urban Design in Chinese Cities” Tingwei Zhang
Ivan Arenas
Xochitl Bada, Discussant
“Trans-Urban Imaginaries in Asia: Mumbai Taxis/Singapore Style” Tarini Bedi
John Betancur, Discussant
Andy Clarno, Discussant
Teresa Córdova, Convener
Glenda Garelli, Discussant
Tim Imeokparia, Discussant
“Tahrir Square, Cairo and the Making of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011” Atef Said
“Out of Mogadishu: Post-Cold War Diasporas, ‘Second Life’ and Community in Chicago” Lynette Jackson

We welcome your participation at both events.

RSVP today for what is sure to be a very exciting time. For more details on the symposium, visit our event page or view the full program.

Boot Camp or School? Critics Worry Charters for Minority Kids Are Too Militant

04-13-15 lipmannews

Yahoo News quotes Pauline Lipman, professor of educational policy studies, on the high rates of suspension, expulsion and teacher turnover in Success Academy, a chain of charter schools known for militaristic discipline.

For all its achievement, Success’ pressurized environment has led to one of the higher rates of student suspension and expulsion in New York, along with a teacher turnover rate that’s all but put a revolving door on the faculty lounge.

“It’s really quite high” compared with traditional public schools, says Pauline Lipman, a University of Illinois–Chicago educational policies professor and an expert on urban education and inequality. The tough standards and hyper-focus on test scores, she says, typically don’t leave room for creativity, independent thought, or individualized education—it prepares kids to take tests instead of preparing them for college.

“They basically drill kids in a good portion of the year. And when kids don’t [achieve], then they are shamed,” says Lipman. That approach, she says, teaches kids that “it’s their own fault because they aren’t putting forth the effort.”

That’s true at Success Academy: Low-scoring students are sent to “effort academies,” whichThe New York Times recently described as part detention, part study hall. At the same time, Success and other no-excuses charter schools have suspension and expulsion rates up to six times higher than traditional public schools, and they’ve been accused of pushing out students with learning or emotional disabilities.

There’s another problem with the approach: “I think it’s grounded in race,” Lipman says. “It sees poor [minority] families as pathological” and assumes they’re poor because they aren’t working hard enough.

The student populations at no-excuses charters “are almost entirely black and Latino,” says Lipman, and the schools are located in poor communities with failing traditional public schools. Those charters, she adds, convince parents—and school administrators—that tough love is the answer rather than giving chaotic, underachieving, understaffed, and overwhelmed neighborhood schools the resources they need to succeed.

Full Story from Yahoo »

The Civics of Community Development: Participatory Budgeting in Chicago

Authors:
Rachel Weber, Thea Crum & Eduardo Salinas (2015)

Abstract:
We investigate the relationship between community organizations and the implementation of a multi-ward participatory budgeting (PB) process in Chicago. Drawing on observations and surveys administered during 2012–2013, we find that participation in PB varied across the four wards, as did the involvement of community organizations. The ward with the highest turnout also had the lowest associational involvement, possibly because residents were familiar with the process and because some organizations there did not want to appear to endorse a process associated with the alderman. We found that the engagement of organizations depended on their missions, as well as their relationships to their elected officials. Reform-oriented groups that focused on the built environment participated more than advocacy organizations whose agendas were less physical and more ideological. The positive linkages found between the pre-existing civic infrastructure and participation in PB in other contexts (notably Brazil) may be less apparent in politician-led, infrastructure- focused processes where top-down mobilization is more common.

DOI:10.1080/15575330.2015.1028081

Full Text »

Tower Blocks, Modern Suburbs, and 21st Century Urbanism in Toronto

Graeme Stewart
Associate, ERA Architects

Lunch provided.

Graeme Stewart will discuss recent developments in Toronto’s Tower Neighbourhood Renewal initiative.

With its thousands of residential towers, Toronto has an urban form unique in North America. In fact, Toronto has a denser metropolitan area than Chicago, Los Angeles, or even Greater New York City. This is not the result of the city core, but rather of distributed pockets of density found in apartment neighbourhoods throughout the GTA.

Graeme’s talk will review the history of this unique condition, address a number of problems arising from the construction and planning of these neighbourhoods, and explain the Tower Renewal initiative and its efforts to rethink our city from the ground up and the top down.

To request disability accommodations, please contact Christiana Kinder, (312) 996-8700, christia@uic.edu

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GCI announces 2015-2016 Faculty Scholars

02-09-15 scholarannouncement

Dear GCI followers,

Great Cities Institute is pleased to announce the 2015-2016 GCI Faculty Scholars. A criterion for judging the proposals was the extent to which they address UIC and GCI’s Great Cities Commitment to connect scholarship and the quality of life in cities and metropolitan regions.

Since 1995, the Institute has appointed 161 Faculty Scholars from over 34 different departments and units at UIC. The GCI Faculty Scholars Program provides awardees the opportunity to conduct research that contributes to their professional development, enriches their respective academic disciplines and leads to changes in policy and professional practice outside the academy.

The 2015-2016 GCI Faculty Scholars include:
David Stovall, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Policy Studies and African-American Studies
“Notes on an Engineered Conflict: School Closings, Public Housing, Law Enforcement and the Future of Black Life”

Ronak Kapadia, Assistant Professor, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies
“Beyond ‘Chiraq’ and Homan Square: Alternatives to Mass Incarceration, Military Urbanism, and Homeland Security in Chicago”

Amy Bailey, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
“Transition to Adulthood for Working Class Youth: Institutions and Informal Practices in Local Communities”

New for 2015-2016, GCI Senior Faculty Scholar:
David Perry, Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Policy
“The University as Urban Anchor: From Enclave to Engaged Institution”

The 2015-2016 Great Cities Institute Faculty Scholar Competition was guided by GCI’s commitment to encourage collaborative, cross-disciplinary research on topics that affect the quality of life of people living in Chicago, its metropolitan region, and other great cities and urban regions around the world. Priority was given to proposals that have a high potential to promote synergy among scholars working on a topic related to UIC and GCI’s urban missions, create enduring collaborative relationships, and attract funding from outside the university.

The 2014-2015 Great Cities Institute Faculty Scholars were:
Ning Ai, Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Policy
Isabel Cruz, Professor, Department of Computer Science
“Feasibility & Efficiency Analysis of Neighborhood-Based Sustainable Food Waste Management”

Lynette Jackson, Associate Professor, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies
“New African Diaspora in Chicago: Memories, Maps, and Communities”

Nadine Naber, Associate Professor, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies & Asian American Studies Program
“Ending Violence against Arab Women: Transnational Approaches across Four Cities (Cairo, Beirut, Chicago, Detroit)”

Laurie Schaffner, Associate Professor, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies & Department of Sociology
“Chicago Youth in the Survival Sex Economy: Sexualities, Poverty, Race, and the Law”

In the 2015-2016 academic year GCI will incorporate new GCI Faculty Scholars into its local and regional governance cluster. The upcoming GCI Faculty scholars may also participate in GCI’s employment and economic development cluster as well as the dynamics of global mobility cluster.

Sincerely,
Teresa Córdova
Director

A Changing Back of the Yards: The Growing Latino Population

Panelists, Craig Chico, President & CEO, Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council; Emilio L. Carrasquillo, Neighborhood Director, Neighborhood Housing Services; and Henry Cervantes, Community Organizer, The Resurrection Project; discuss the evolving needs for the growing Latino population in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, and how their organizations have adapted.

More people moved away from Illinois last year than any other state

WBEZ Chicago Public Radio interviewed P.S. Sriraj, research associate professor in the Urban Transportation Center, on the movement of low-income populations from Chicago to the suburbs and collar counties. Sriraj says the reasons typically are proximity to jobs, quality of education, and crime rates.

He says in the past, people of low income populated in the city center, like Chicago. Now, that population is moving out to the suburbs and collar counties.

“Those reasons are typically tied to employment—proximity to employment. Could also be tied to crime, crime rate in the city versus the suburbs. And it’s also a direct correlation to quality of education,” he said.

…

“If you look at the pattern of immigrants coming to the country, their first stop has always been the larger city,” Sriraj said. “Once they acclimatize to the culture and surroundings, they find a foothold in suburban locations. That’s typical.”

He says those international arrivals could eventually be part of that exodus to the collar counties.

Full Story from WBEZ »

Collateral damage in Chicago’s TIF argument: Schools

Crain’s Chicago Business published an op-ed by Rachel Weber, GCI fellow and associate professor of urban planning and policy, in which she points out discrepancies in a Crain’s column arguing that public schools in tax increment financing districts are not harmed by TIF. Weber notes that her research has found otherwise, and that any effect of TIF on schools is mediated by tax caps, transfers of TIF funds between agencies, and the state’s equalization formula.

Full Op-Ed from Crain’s Chicago Business »